Proov and Google Health Connect bring analysis of four hormones to users' phones to better inform reproductive health decisions.
Google Health Connect has paired up with Proov to provide the only FDA-cleared and CE marked at-home ovulation diagnostic platform. Proov offers hormone and fertility information through its at-home tests and the Proov Insights app that can help avoid costly, invasive procedures like in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Through the standardized data scheme designed by Google and Samsung, Google Health Connect users can track 40 data types across six categories: activity, body measurement, cycle tracking, nutrition, sleep and vitals. By integrating Proov into the Health Connect ecosystem, dynamic health insights can be created to understand how things like sleep relate to fertility and a menstruator's cycle, what Proov founder and CEO Amy Beckley calls the "fifth vital sign."
“The menstrual cycle impacts everything we do; it's a measure of your health,” Beckley said. “If your menstrual cycle is not balanced then it affects your health. You can use your menstrual cycle to be at peak performance. When your estrogen surges, you are more energetic, you have more endurance, you're more creative.”
Beckley referenced professional athletes who plan their workout routine around their cycle. She said Proov is a strong fertility tool but also a tool for all menstruators to know the movement of their hormones better.
“Peak athletes, they will train according to their cycle, so they do certain things like in the luteal phase; they're a little bit stronger, but they don't have as much endurance they're going to do higher reps in strength training,” Beckley said. “When you're actually bleeding, it's better to do yoga and stretching to give your body a little bit of a break to heal and get ready. If you support your body and your menstrual cycle, you can be more productive.”
Many menstruators track their cycle using simple tracking apps with little more insight than your mother’s pencil and calendar method.
The Proov system tracks up to four hormones to discover an expanded six days of fertility, hormone imbalances and insights into health conditions like painful PMS and repeated miscarriages. Users can even learn how many eggs they have left.
These insights can help users avoid costly IVF procedures. Beckley herself spent tens of thousands of dollars to conceive her son after a series of miscarriages only to later find out that a $100 supplement could have addressed her hormone imbalance.
While many of these insights can be found through tests at a primary care visit or OB-GYN checkups, Beckley says that Proov offers unique insights due to its at-home nature.
The tool is billed by cycle and hormones. Progesterone-only tests are $29 per cycle; four hormone tests are $89 a cycle. This means a user conducts a urine test 20 times during their cycle to gain insights into how hormones fluctuate within their cycle.
This, she said, is the advantage of Proov. Hormones change every day of a cycle, so taking one test one day is not enough to gain a full picture of fertility or hormone levels.
“If you go into a lab or send in a sample, you're getting like a snapshot in time, it was really hard to understand the cycle and how estrogen and progesterone fluctuate across it,” Beckley said. “What happens across the cycle, and how the hormones balance across this 28- to 35-day period, that affects our mood, our ability to conceive, the heaviness of our periods, our energy levels.”
Proov recommends that menstruators complete three cycles of tests in order to rule out abnormalities like especially stressful months that may change a menstrual cycle or things like the COVID-19 vaccine which altered cycles in many who received injections.
Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is tested to check egg count. Progesterone (PdG) tests confirm successful ovulation. Estrogen (E1G) and luteinizing hormone (LH) measure which six days of the week are the best to attempt conception.
By mapping out all four hormones, Proov can perform early screening for polycystic ovary disease which can cause acne, hair loss, insulin resistance and infertility.
Period tracking apps often only predict five days of fertility based on aggregated data that may not speak to an individual’s fertility window.
“OB-GYNs focus on tracking ovulation and timing intercourse, and that's it,” Beckley said. “We realized that it's not enough. There's good ovulation or bad ovulation. It's the hormones that are produced by the ovary that prepare the uterus for conception. It’s not just about timing. A hormone called progesterone prepares the uterus for implantation, so if progesterone is off balance people can have intercourse and not actually conceive.”
Google Health Connect was announced in May and made available in November. The collaboration between Google and Samsung allows health apps to share information with one another. Platforms that have joined include Peloton, Oura, WeightWatchers, MyFitnessPal, Flo, Lifesum, Tonal and Outdooractive. Google and its partner Samsung also integrated their own platforms: Fitbit, Google Fit and Samsung Health.
Within the shared space, privacy is maintained through users choosing which information they’re willing to share. Dual opt-in is maintained with information flowing either into or out of Proov from other platforms in Google Health Connect.
Proov only employs user information for research purposes with the user’s project-specific consent. Proov also compensates users for their data.
“The data is hers, always hers; we’ll never sell it,” Beckley said. “We'll pay you for your data. It's their data, and it's our duty to pay them for it. It's not like we should just request it for free. It's valuable.”
Period tracking has become a hot topic following the overturning of Roe v. Wade with apps like Flo announcing "anonymous mode" to allow users further protection of their data.
The company now offers its technology at more than thousand OB-GYN offices across the U.S.
Proov banked a series A round funding last year at $9.7 million.
